Слово на честный и животворящий Крест. Св. Ефрема Сирина

Every holiday and every act of our Lord Jesus Christ brings salvation and praise to our faithful. But the praise of praise is a cross; but the feast of feasts is when the Passover, Christ, was devoured for us (1 Cor. 5:7), or better yet, when the Lamb of God rose from the dead, taking away the sin of the world (John 1:29). This is the mistress and queen of the holidays. But all other holidays are holy and worthy, and, differing from each other in word, are illuminated by the brilliance of the Divine. A zealot of God’s commandments honors them in a worthy manner and faithfully celebrates them. But the unclean and defiled by sins do not celebrate even on the holiday. A wonderful and godly holiday - repentance with tears, abstinence from sins, knowledge of God and desire for eternal blessings. When they celebrate in this way, there is joy on the bodies, and the Church rejoices, rejoices and convenes all the righteous, saying: “Rejoice with me, for this son of mine was dead through sins, and is alive through repentance" (Luke 15:24). A beautiful and godly holiday is where Christ celebrates, where His festivals are celebrated and the Divine Scriptures are honored. Christ celebrates where those celebrating are united in His name by love, without any enmity and without any hypocrisy. Christ celebrates where they serve the poor, where they comfort the orphans, where they give rest to strangers, where they honor God - in psalms and songs and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19). Thus those celebrating are united in His name; in their midst, according to the promise (Matthew 18:20), Christ is found. since they are among them, no one harms them. So let us celebrate the Lord's holidays not magnificently, but divinely - not in a worldly manner, but in a worldly manner. Let us not crown the vestibules, compose faces, decorate faces, soften the ears with pipes and harps, clothe ourselves in light vestments and the glitter of gold. Let us not celebrate goat-speaking and drunkenness (Rom. 13:13). Do not ruin the works of God for the sake of food; do not violate God’s sacred service for the sake of an insatiable belly by working in a cookhouse. But let us leave this to those whose belly and glory are God (Phil. 3:19). We all together, small and large, men and wives, will celebrate the Lord's holidays, as we have been taught, in a Christian and pious manner, in psalms and songs and spiritual songs. Let us crown the vestibules like Christians, and not like the Hellenes, who crown them with laurel branches and flowers and other substances (as is the custom among the Hellenes and Jews). The shadow of the law has passed away, but the truth has blossomed, as we hear from the Apostle, who says: the ancient thing was made, behold, it was all new (2 Cor. 5:17). Idol's flattery is abolished, death is deprived of its prey, the captives of hell are driven away, the kingdom of polytheism is crushed, man is freed, God reigns, creation rejoices, the Cross reigns, which is worshiped by all nations and peoples, kindreds and languages ​​- in which we boast, speaking with blessed Paul: let me not boast except about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galat. 6:14). Therefore, let us place this life-giving cross on our doors, and on our foreheads, and on our eyes, and on our lips, and on our chest, and on all our members; Let us arm ourselves with this invincible weapon of Christians, with this conqueror of death, with this hope of the faithful, with this light of the meek, with this weapon that opens paradise and overthrows heresies, with this support of the Orthodox faith, with the saving praise of the Church. Christians, we will not leave him for one hour, not for one moment, carrying him with us everywhere, and we will not do anything without him; but whether we sleep, whether we get up, whether we work, whether we eat, whether we drink, whether we go on a journey, whether we sail on the sea, whether we cross rivers, we will mark all our members with the life-giving cross. And we will not be afraid from the fear of the night, from the arrow that flies during the day, from the thing that passes in darkness, from the debris and demon of the midday (Psalm 91:5-6). If, my brother, you always use it to help yourself, then evil will not come to you, and the wound will not approach your village (Ps. 90:10): for the opposing forces, at the sight of it, flee with trembling. The cross abolished idolatrous flattery. He enlightened the entire universe. He dispersed the darkness and spread the light. From the west and the north, from the sea and the east, He gathered peoples into one Church, to one faith and one baptism, and bound them with love. Oh, what lips and what tongue will praise, as they should, this insurmountable wall of the Orthodox, this victorious weapon of the great King Christ! The cross is the resurrection of the dead. The cross is the hope of Christians. The cross is the rod of the lame. The cross is the consolation of the poor. The cross is a bridle for the rich, an overthrow of the proud. The cross is a monument to victory over demons, a mentor to the young. The cross is a marketplace for traders, hope for the desperate, and a feeding ground for swimmers. The cross is a haven for those overwhelmed, a wall for those surrounded by enemies. The cross is the father of orphans, the counselor of the truthful. The cross is the consolation of those who mourn, the guardian of infants, the glory of men, the crown of elders. The cross is light to those sitting in darkness. The cross is the splendor of kings, wisdom for barbarians. The cross is freedom for slaves, wisdom for the ignorant. The cross is the preaching of the prophets, the companion of the apostles, the praise of the martyrs. The cross is the chastity of virgins, the joy of priests. The cross is the foundation of the Church, the affirmation of the universe. The cross is the destruction of idolatrous churches, a temptation for the Jews. The cross is the strength of the weak, the physician of the sick. The cross is the cleansing of lepers, restoration of strength to the paralytic. The cross is the bread of the hungry, a fountain for the thirsty. The cross is the trustworthiness of the monks, the cover of the naked. He was planted in the middle of the universe, planted on the place of execution, and immediately brought forth grapes of life. With this holy weapon, Christ tore apart the all-consuming womb of hell and stopped the wicked lips of the devil. Seeing this, death came into awe and horror and freed everyone whom it had dominated from the primordial. Armed with them, the blessed apostles conquered all the power of the enemy and, catching all the nations in their midst; gathered them to worship the Cross. Having put on it like armor, the martyrs and soldiers of Christ trampled all the plans of the tormentors and preached with boldness. Having taken it and carried it on themselves, for the sake of Christ, those who have renounced everything in the world with great joy live in deserts and mountains, in caves and abysses of the earth. Oh, the immeasurable and incomparable goodness of God’s bounties! How many blessings God has given through the cross to the human race! This good helmsman, having filled our whole life with abundance and pacified it, gave us eternal life in the future: for this most honorable cross again, at the second coming of Christ, will first appear as the honorable and life-giving, venerable and holy scepter of the great King Christ, according to the word of the Lord, who said: then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven (Matt. 24:30). So, the cross will first appear in heaven with the entire army of angels, at the coming of the Lord Christ, illuminating the whole earth from end to end more than the radiance of the sun. Amen 1. Creations of St. our father Ephraim the Syrian, in Russian. lane Ed. fourth, 1895, part 2, pp. 260–263; Sunday Reading XVI (1852–53), pp. 239–240. It is not without reason that it is believed that the “word on the honorable and life-giving Cross" was pronounced by St. Ephraim the Syrian on the feast of the Exaltation of the honorable and life-giving Cross of the Lord. See the study by P. Smirnov - “The Sermons of St. Ephraim the Syrian" - in the “Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy” 1894, No. 11, p. 329. You might be interested in: